


Silver Buttons All Down Her Back

by rebel_diamond



Series: Love on Ice [5]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Rumbelle The Cutting Edge, Rumbelle fics need more Colette in them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 13:16:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14497785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebel_diamond/pseuds/rebel_diamond
Summary: Belle had secured Gold's attendance her 21st birthday party. She’d made the request under the guise of improving their skater-coach relationship. But what she really wants to do is test the boundaries.Part of the Love on Ice series where Gold is Belle's skating coach.Written for the @a-monthly-rumbelling prompt: “You’re the most annoying person I know but I think I’m in love with you anyway.”





	Silver Buttons All Down Her Back

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Title refers to one of the songs that plays at the New Years Eve party in the movie The Cutting Edge.

 

The house was overrun with people and it was making his skin crawl. He hadn’t been in a crowd this size since his skating days and he’d  _ left  _ skating to avoid situations like this one. He didn’t like making small talk. He didn’t want to reminisce about his years on the ice. And he was enduring all of this for a girl’s birthday party, of all things. 

Moe told him he was expected to attend Belle’s twenty-first birthday fete. Gold had informed him that he was a grown man who would spend his time off as he pleased and that sure didn’t include an ice princess’ birthday celebration. But then Moe had made it abundantly clear to him who signed his checks. Though, looking around the mansion he was standing in, he was fairly certain it was Collette’s history of endorsement deals that paid is salary. 

So now here he was, shoulder to shoulder to Storybrooke’s finest and various skaters and coaches who trained in the area. 

“You look like you could use a drink,” someone said behind him.  

He was expecting to greet a waiter who he planned to spend the evening becoming great friends with. Instead he looked up at a pair of intense green eyes under high arches. Ella. She had been a singles skater during his time and now coached a stable of competitive skaters. She was a cutthroat drama queen and that’s what he’d liked that about her. 

“Gold, darling, you look like hell,” she said in way of greeting, thrusting a glass at him.  

Christ he hated gin, but if that’s what she was offering, he’d take it. “Truer words were never spoken,” he replied distractedly. He gulped and winced.  

She looked down at him confusedly. “I didn’t think you’d be caught dead at a skating function.”  

Gold was there under duress. He was paid to be Belle’s coach and this was outside his coaching role. But he could find more of -- and help himself to -- Moe’s expensive booze. 

***

Upstairs, Belle admired herself in her bedroom mirror.  

Ruby, one of her few non-skating friends, sat at the vanity reapplying fire engine red lipstick. Belle appreciated Ruby’s daring. She always had to be the picture perfect skater. But Ruby could be unruly and wear whatever she wanted and act however she liked, thought it drove her grandmother crazy. Even if Belle couldn’t be like that, she liked being around that energy. And tonight she was going to need it. 

It was Ruby she’d taken shopping with her because she knew she wouldn’t talk her out of the kind of dress she was looking for. It was a dark blue sequin mini dress. It had a high neck, three quarter length sleeves, and the length itself wasn’t particularly daring. Belle didn’t shy away from short skirts. She wore them in front of crowds, after all. But this time she’d forgo the skating tights. 

The real appeal of the dress was the completely open back with a thin string criss crossing down to her butt. Ruby said it was the kind of dress that gave men ideas. And that was exactly what she was looking for tonight. Not that she wanted to attract all men, just a particular one.   

“Bubbly?” Ruby had snatched a bottle of champagne from downstairs and passed it to Belle, who took a deep swig.  

Instead of the usual neat ponytail, her hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun with tendrils falling around her face. Bed head, Ruby had called it. They’d left Belle’s usual pastel shades in the vanity and lined her eyes with black charcoal instead.

Ariel, an ice dancer with her partner Eric, was sprawled on the bed behind her, scrolling through pictures on her phone. “Eric is so cute,” she swooned. 

“He likes you,” Belle insisted, looking at her in the mirror. 

“Why don’t you just jump him?” Ruby asked. 

Ariel’s eyes widened to saucers, “I couldn’t do that! I can’t do that! Could I?” 

Ruby shrugged, “Boys are dumb. They don’t know what’s in front of them until you stick it in their face, so to speak.” 

That was the idea. Belle had secured her father’s promise that he’d insist Gold show up tonight. She’d made this request under the guise of improving their skater-coach relationship. That was true, in a way. But what she really wanted to do was test the boundaries of that relationship. This wasn’t the ice or the training room, it was her home. He couldn’t boss her around here. 

Ariel rolled over, “Is Gaston going to be here tonight?” she sang at Belle. 

Ruby pursed her lips and made a noise like she’d eaten something delicious. “Talk about tall, dark, and handsome.” 

Inwardly, Belle cringed. Sure, Gaston was classically attractive. But Belle didn’t want tall, dark and handsome. She wanted average height, graying beard, and Scottish.  

They’d assumed this whole seduction was for Gaston’s benefit. Belle didn’t bother to correct them. She didn’t want to tell them who all this was really for. Not because she was ashamed, but, for once in her life, she didn’t want anyone else’s opinion or advice. She knew what she wanted. And she was going after it. This would be the first time they’d be seeing each other off the ice and she wanted to make an impression.  

Ruby came up behind her in the mirror, “He won’t be able to keep his hands to himself.”

“That’s what I’m hoping,” Belle replied. 

***

If one more person tried to reminisce about the good old days with Gold he was going to lose it. He couldn't leave until Moe saw him sufficiently schmoozing. But he needed to take a break from these people. He roamed the hallways and ducked into the first closed door he came to. The noise of the crowd was now a muted din on the other side of the heavy door and he felt like he could breathe again. He was in a big library. The walls were lined with books and the shelves were so tall there was a ladder to reach the highest row. It was full of dark colors and big cushioned chairs. There was even a fire in the hearth. Intermixed with the books on the shelves were family photos and skating awards. He plucked a photograph of a young Belle and her parents off one shelf. Shining above him was a row a medals and trophies with Belle’s and Gaston’s name on them. On other shelves were less glossy, older awards he recognized from his era. 

“You always were a lone wolf,” came an accented voice by the fire. He spun around. Leaning over the arm of a chair was a woman about his age. She gave him a kind smile. A smile that was familiar to him. 

“Colette,” he said warmly. He had a lot of terrible memories from his time skating, but she wasn’t one of them. She had always been gracious with everyone. He took the seat diagonal to hers. “Why aren’t you down at the party?” 

She sighed deeply, closing the book on her lap. “I don’t have the energy for all night galas anymore. I’ll go down a bit later.” He noticed for the first time how wispy her voice sounded. He knew she was sick, he just never considered how serious it might be. He remembered her as a petite, graceful ice dancer. Now her cheekbones shown sharply and her skin was pale. It was distressing to see her so much older and frail. But then again, they both were. 

“You’ve been away a long time,” she prompted gently.  

He gave her a half smile. “Skating has been kinder to some of us than others,” he said drolly.  

She made a face. “It wasn’t skating that was unkind to you, it was Milah.” 

“Who the skating community is still celebrating, I hear,” he added bitterly. He shook his head. He didn’t want to open old wounds tonight. “I take it you’re partly responsible for me being here.” He’d long suspected it was Colette who told Moe who to contact to find him.  

She grinned guiltily. “I thought you’d do well to come back to your family.” 

Gold smiled back at her. Colette still had that sereneness about her that made her impossible to be mad at.

“She’s as good a skater as you,” he told her, referring to Belle.  

“She’s better,” Colette countered, and he didn’t argue with her. She sighed again. “My Belle. She’s a good girl. A little too good sometimes,” she pondered, looking into the fire. “I worry about her.” The unspoken words referring to her own mortality hung heavy in the air. 

“Well, she’s a pain in the ass to me,” he quipped, lightening the mood.  

Colette smiled genuinely. “That’s good. You two need each other. You each have what the other doesn’t.”

He furrowed his brow at that, but before he could ask her what she meant, she jerked her head at him. “Go back to the party. Have some spiked punch for me.” He was hesitant to leave her but rose and made his way to the door. “And Rumford,” she called softly to him when he had his hand on the doorknob. She gave him a mischievous smirk, “Do try to have a little fun.” 

**

He exited the library and returned to the foyer just in time to hear someone exclaim, “There’s the birthday girl!” He followed everyone’s gaze to the top of the staircase. Belle stood at the top. The light from the chandelier reflected her dress and made her sparkle. As the crowd grew at the bottom of the staircase to welcome her, her eyes scanned the crowd and found his. Whatever she saw there seemed to please her because she gave him a smile he’d never seen from her before. She kept her gaze locked on his as she descended but was forced to break it when she reached the bottom and was enveloped by a sea of neighbors, friends of her parents, skaters, and coaches.

Gold swallowed and wiped at the back of his neck, which had broken out in sweat. It wasn’t just the sequins. Sequins played an integral role in his life. But that was for the judges and the people sitting in the back row. That was a mankiller dress, meant to slay every male within a fifty yard radius. Colette’s words popped unbridled into his head.  _ She has what he needed indeed. _ He could speculate over her meaning later, but he was certain she didn’t mean in bed. 

Air. He needed air. He felt a chill coming in from the propped open doors in the kitchen and headed down a dimly lit hallway towards it. 

Only to be cut off by Belle coming the other way. 

“Mr. Gold,” she chirped, cradling a champagne flute in one hand. 

“Miss French,” he greeted tersely. 

She frowned. “Do you like my dress?” She spun for him, revealing her entire back to him. His fingers itched to pluck at the strings. Or take scissors up the back to see if the front would fall away. That wasn’t a dress. That was a full frontal assault of his nerves.

“What did you get me?” 

“What?” he shook his head to clear it. Usually she was on the ice, looking to him for approval. She was a people pleaser at heart, he could tell. But that wasn’t what she was like now. She looked...dangerous. 

She took another step towards him and he felt himself bump up against the wall. “It is my birthday.” 

They’d never been this physically close before. Scents of lavender and vanilla were making him dizzy. “I thought rearranging your training schedule to accommodate this little shindig was payment enough,” he said tightly. 

She laughed like he’d made a great joke. “You missed me blowing out the candles on my cake. Do you want to know what I wished for?”  

_ Yes. _ “No.” 

She smiled behind the stemware in her hand.  

That was it, he needed another drink.  _ Now. _ No, coffee. Alcohol was what was going to get them into this mess. No mess, he mentally corrected. There wouldn’t be a mess because they wouldn’t be getting into one. He was her coach, she was his...charge. There was nothing happening here so there was nothing to happen, end of story.   

“Don’t drink too much, I need you steady on the ice tomorrow morning,” he commanded harshly.   

Instead of fuming, like she normally reacted to his demands, she looked at him curiously. “You’re the most annoying person I know but I think I’m in love with you anyway,” she told him, matter-of-factly. 

“Belle!” a voice boomed down the hallway, making him jump. “Your father wants to make a toast!” 

She smiled at him relaxedly. “Coming!” she called back. She smiled again before pivoting on her heels and slinking down the hallway and disappearing from sight.   

Now what the hell was he supposed to do with that? 


End file.
